AN: No Flames please! DX Also, I believe a Disclaimer is needed!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO IN ANY WAY... I ONLY OWN THE OCS IN THIS STORY, AND EVEN THAT IS BARELY TRUE. THEY SEEM TO OWN THEMSELVES... ESPECIALLY RYOUTA.
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Ryouta!
"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune, Tsunade's assistant cried, bursting into the Hokage's office, a look of surprise on her face. Her hair was messed up and her clothes looked as if they had been thrown on in a hurry, which was probably the case. Although Shizune was seen as a clean, neat, and organized person, it was not unusual for her to have her 'off days', when she'd wake up late or forget to turn in paperwork from one of her few missions.
The Fifth Hokage, a blond woman who appeared to look thirty or so(but was actually fifty), looked up from her desk and gave her assistant an exasperated look. Shizune could be overdramatic at times, and she'd occasionally get worked up over the littlest of things, like having heard that they would be canceling one of her favorite book series, or that Ton-ton had caught a little cold. Whatever it was, Tsunade was sure it wasn't too important.
"What is it?" She said in her usual drawl, having woke up to the sounds of her assistant's foot steps when Shizune had ran into the building. Luckily, she had managed to clean herself up a bit so that she'd appear as if she hadn't been sleeping when she was supposed to be working only moments before.
Once she had seen that she had her attention, Shizune launched into her excuse as to why she was late, saying that Ton-ton had accidentally woke her up late, and how all her clothes had been dirty, and that she hadn't been able to find her hairbrush, and finally the reason why she was so upset.
"Lady Tsunade, there had been reports of a group of people heading towards Konoha!" She said at last, which made Tsunade hit her head on her desk.
This was what was so important? A group of travelers coming to the Hidden Leaf? Surely a village full of ninja could handle a small group of people, even if the latter were ninja from a enemy village!
"Shizune," She growled in an agitated tone, "Why is it that you find this little piece of information so alarming? Isn't it quite common for people to come here? Why, yesterday a traveling circus came through! Yet, you hadn't acted so worked up about it then! So why now?"
A look of panic flashed across her face for a brief second before she replied with her shocking answer:
"Lady Tsunade, they all look like Uchihas."
-Ry0u74-
Team Seven, a squad of Genin consisting of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke, had always been the most prominent of the Rookie Nine. It wasn't because of their bloodline or of what was inside of them, it was always because of their skills. The Uchiha had been the best in his class, topping everyone else with the highest grades, while the young Uzumaki was the worst, failing almost every exam, field test, or question he'd get. When they had been put in the same team, everyone had wanted to know how it'd turn out, and if those two would be able to get along and work together.
Well, they were able to work together in a adequate way, and they'd occasionally share a laugh(Naruto doing all the laughing, Sasuke just having that faint smile on his face) together, but that was mostly the extent of their friendship. Most of the time, they'd squabble over the silliest things, like who could eat the fastest and who could eat the most, and they'd sometimes break out into a fight.
A outsider would say the two hated each other, but Sakura, the team's only kunoichi, would say different.
"Say guys," She said as the three, not including their sensei, Kakashi, walked towards the Hokage's office after a successful mission, "how about we all go eat ramen after we're done with Lady Tsunade?" When she was still a beginning Genin, Sakura would've only gave this offer to the oh-so-wonderful Sasuke-kun, but she's changed so much since then. Now, she'd invite both of them to hang out. She's seen the potential her goofball of a teammate had, and the sheer courage that he had to spare.
Naruto is amazing, She had thought many times. Stubborn Sakura, only focused on her love, Sasuke, had changed more than her teammates, and in a way, stronger. Not physically stronger, mind you, but definitely stronger.
"I'm in, Sakura!" Naruto whooped, shoving a fist in the air. Well, Sakura knew Naruto'd say yes, now all that's left is Sasuke…
"Whatever," The Uchiha said with a shrug of nonchalance, his face set in the usual frown. Still, he said yes, and that's what counts!
"What about you, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura inquired, turning to look behind her back at her sensei, who was currently reading another one of his dirty novels. He looked up and shook his head slowly before returning to his book.
"Sorry Sakura, but there's been some… trouble near the gates. People are freaking out, and I've been assigned to go check out why."
"Oh, I see…" Sakura sighed.
-H4ruk0-
Thirty minutes earlier…
"Ne ne! Isn't it going to be great to be back in Konoha?" Cheered a young girl of about seven, her arms swinging as she approached the gates. Her messy raven-colored hair stuck up in all directions, and the only neat areas were her two pigtails which were tied up with two pink ribbons, adding to her cute look. As she jumped over a fairly large rock, she turned to look at her father with her large obsidian eyes and grinned widely.
"Yes, Haruko," Her father chuckled, tipping his cap back to show the same black eyes as his youngest child, "It's very nice to be back home." On his left arm was the insignia of Konoha, the leaf headband, and on his right, a red and white fan.
To his right, his wife was busy nagging their son, Ryouta, who had thrown a stone at a passing bird, efficiently breaking the poor creature's wing. Said bird was now being held gently in her arms, with it's wing wrapped up in dirty bandages ripped from her son's sleeve. She figured that if he didn't mind hurting a poor raven, then he wouldn't mind that half of his right sleeve was now gone. Of course, she had been wrong, because the boy was now arguing with her, his gloved hands balled up into fists as he waved them wildly over his head.
"MOM," Ryouta howled, glaring at his mother with the exact same eyes as his sister and father, "IT'S JUST A DUMB BIRD! Why'd you hafta go and rip up my shirt?! Now I'll have to get a new one!"
"It serves you right, Ryouta!" She snapped, smacking her son on the back of his head with her water bottle, which just so happened to be open. So, you can pretty much guess what happened next.
"…MOM! LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID! I'M ALL WET!" Ryouta whined, shaking his head of black hair like a dog. Unlike his little sister, Ryouta preferred that his hair stayed out of the way, and not always in his eyes, or getting tangled with twigs of branches. So, he came up with a pretty simple solution: he tied his hair back. He still had the side-bangs that most all of his family had, but the rest of his long hair(well, it was long for boys, for girls, it was barely considered medium) had been tied into a small low ponytail.
Little Haruko busted out giggling at the sight of her older brother in such a state, and was forced to stop so she wouldn't run into anything. Shouta, the eldest child in the family, had been forced to carry her on his back.
"Geez, Ryouta, there's no need to go all 'whiny baby' on us!" Shouta snapped, his brown eyes glaring at his brother with annoyance. Sometimes, the fourteen-year-old boy wished that he wasn't even related to his twelve-year-old brother, who was like the water to his fire. He would often daydream that Ryouta was actually adopted into their family, and that as soon as the kid become of age, he'd move away and would never be seen again. But this was reality, Shouta would have regularly to remind himself, Ryouta is family.
"Pheh! Who asked for your opinion?!" Ryouta snapped right back, earning him yet another whack from the water bottle, which was thankfully closed this time.
"Enough, Ryou!" His mother growled, her dark brown eyes looking down at her son in anger, "You need to calm down and get over it! I know you're anxious to get into Konoha as soon as possible, but that doesn't mean you have to get annoying! Now, you're going to shut up and not complain while we make our way home!"
Just before Ryouta was going to retort, six masked figures appeared in front of the group, kunais all in hand. They were Anbu, the father reasoned, seeing the swirl marks on their arms, so the only way to get out of this unscathed would to be to comply to whatever they wanted.
"Who are you?" The one closest to them ordered, the mask that covered his face closely resembling that of a bird. Instead of a kunai in hand, this man actually had a sword, making him appear even more threatening than the others.
"Uchiha Kazuo and Airi, with our three children, Shouta, Ryouta, and Haruko." Kazuo stated firmly, his hands at his sides.
"…No way…"
-5h0u74-
"Lady Hokage, Lady Hokage! Is it true? Is it true?!" That seemed to be the question of the day as villagers filed into her office after hearing rumors of the family of Uchihas that had managed to escape the massacre. The head of the family was well-known once, for each mission that had Uchiha Kazuo on the team would almost always end in a success, and whenever they would fail a mission, the team would always have all their members alive. No one ever really knew how on earth Kazuo had managed to do such things, but he was always known as the good luck ninja.
When the Uchihas were slaughtered, it had been thought that his luck had run out. But no, with him AND his family alive, it just shows that he's luckier than ever.
As soon as Shizune had informed her of the news, the first thing the Fifth had done was pull up a file of missing family members of the Uchiha clan. None of them had been Kazuo. She looked through missions that have been handed out before the massacre, and voilà, there he was. Apparently, the Third had sent him on a long term mission that would last years; one that involved gathering information. And since it wasn't that dangerous, he had allowed Kazuo to bring his family with him.
So here he was, with his family, and in Konoha. And the mission had been a success. Lucky as always.
Now, the main matter at hand was how young Uchiha Sasuke would handle the news.
-3ND 0F Ch4973R 0N3-
